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Living Will Preparation Assistance

Programs that provide assistance for people who want to draft a living will, known in Canada as a personal directive, which describes in writing the forms of treatment the individuals wish to receive or avoid at the end of their lives and the circumstances under which health care professionals should withhold or remove artificial life support or refrain from using heroic measures if the person is unable to provide informed consent due to incapacitation. The conditions in a living will take effect when the individual is in an irreversible condition and is not expected to survive, e.g., if they are in the last stages of a terminal illness, a coma or persistive vegetative state. Not all states/provinces recognize the validity of living wills, but all have some mechanism such as a durable power attorney for health care which achieves the same objective.